Opponents of mass government surveillance are braced for the June-5 campaign for a free and secure internet, led by some of the world’s largest websites. A massive electronic ‘Thunderclap’ is planned for the first anniversary of Snowden’s revelations.

Some 200 websites have joined the #ResetTheNet
campaign, urging internet users, developers and content providers
to use “NSA-resistant” software, and tools to protect the global
net against intrusive government surveillance.

The sites, which vary from individual pages to internet giants
like Reddit, Imgur and Boing Boing, various rights groups,
including Amnesty International and Greenpeace will place an
internet “splash screen” on Thursday in support of the
campaign.

The screen will give tips on ensuring web privacy, and simply by
submitting an email on the campaign’s website, users can download
a “privacy pack of free software tools that make end-to-end
encryption easy.”

At the same time, Fight for the Future, which launched the
project, is calling for supporters to reach out to millions of
people on social media in a giant June-5 ‘Thunderclap’.

“Don’t ask for your privacy. Take it back. Today we
#ResetTheNet to stop mass spying. Encrypt everything! Learn
how:http://thndr.it/1euOUIl "
will be the message posted simultaneously by thousands of social
media users in a web-delivered ‘Thunderclap’ that will bag an
estimated social reach of about 3.7 million people, and counting.

According to the project’s page, the choice of the June-5 date
was deliberate. It will be a year to the day when the first
revelations of the US National Security Agency’s (NSA)
warrantless and huge-scale web surveillance were published by the Guardian.

It soon turned out that the report was based on leaked classified
data obtained from CIA employee and NSA contractor Edward
Snowden, who left for Hong Kong to escape persecution. The
whistleblower was eventually trapped in a Moscow airport, in
transit to South America, after the US revoked his passport. RT
extensively covered the dramatic story that unfolded and
culminated in Snowden receiving temporary asylum in Russia.

The ‘Reset the Net’ project comes slap-bang in the middle of the
ongoing campaign for net neutrality under the hashtag #SaveTheInternet. For those still unfamiliar with
the issue, the latest episode of Juice Rap News ingeniously sums
it all up.